10
In the same poet also we may observe the difference betwixt the humor of a coward and a valiant man. For Thersites Against Achilles a great malice had, And wise Ulysses he did hate as bad; but Ajax is always represented as friendly to Achilles; and particularly he speaks thus to Hector concerning him:— Hector! approach my arm, and singly know What strength thou last, and what the Grecian foe. Achilles shuns the fight; yet some there are Not void of soul, and not unskill’d in war: wherein he insinuates the high commendation of that valiant man. And in what follows, he speaks like handsome things of his fellow-soldiers in general, thus:— Whole troops of heroes Greece has yet to boast, And sends thee one, a sample of her host; wherein he doth not boast himself to be the only or the best champion, but one of those, among many others, who were fit to undertake that combat.
10
What hath been said is sufficient upon the point of dissimilitudes; except we think fit to add this, that many of the Trojans came into the enemy’s power alive, but none of the Grecians; and that many of the Trojans supplicated to their enemies,—as (for instance) Adrastus, the sons of Antimachus, Lycaon,—and even Hector himself entreats Achilles for a sepulture; but not one of these doth so, as judging it barbarous to supplicate to a foe in the field, and more Greek-like either to conquer or die.
